


What Does It Mean?

by aj_linguistik



Series: October Prompt Challenge [10]
Category: Fruits Basket (Anime 2019)
Genre: Childhood Soulmates, Children, F/M, October Prompt Challenge, One Shot, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-10
Updated: 2020-10-10
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:34:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26935945
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aj_linguistik/pseuds/aj_linguistik
Summary: He thought he could just say the word casually and there wouldn't be any problem. But as soon as the word came out of his mouth, he saw the confusion and innocence in Kisa's eyes. Maybe he was confused, too. What did it really mean to be someone's soulmate? Were they too young to know?
Relationships: Sohma Hiro/Sohma Kisa
Series: October Prompt Challenge [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1949194
Kudos: 13





	What Does It Mean?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [disasterbiKirito](https://archiveofourown.org/users/disasterbiKirito/gifts).



> A/N: Day 10 and I have written around 23k words for thsi challenge. Whoof. That's a lot! I still have twenty-one more to go, but 10 is a big milestone for me, because I rarely stick to my guns with an October prompt challenge. For today, my beloved has given me Hiro and Kisa as childhood soulmates. The prompt for today was "as a child." This felt really soft to write, so I hope you enjoy it!

“Soulmate?”

When Kisa said it, her voice sounded so innocent, as it always did. There was something so gentle about her voice that it always put his mind at ease, even when Akito was near. Hearing her say this word reminded him that they still were very much so children, both in the literal sense and the mental sense. He’d been too quick to use the word. Here, out of the sight of everyone, he’d felt free to express his emotions. Whatever those emotions were, he’d thought that the word “soulmate” fit the picture. Wasn’t that what they were? Soulmates? Or was that too big of a word for him to use at his age. Hiro kicked at a stone in the sidewalk and sighed.

Kisa watched him as he walked, her eyes never leaving him even as he looked away to think. She would wait as long as she needed to for him to find an answer. She was patient and kind. He could barely think of her as the tiger spirit in this regard. Tigers in media were always portrayed as vicious animals with the demeanor of a predator—and here Kisa was, several times more gentle than he was. He loved that about her.

There. That was the trouble with a word like love. It applied both to people and animals; it could refer to things people loved to do, to personality traits in others, to dishes served at a restaurant in the city. So, how could he define the difference between love and a soulmate? They covered a similar territory of things. He knew that someone he loved and someone he considered his soulmate were both very dear people to him. He also knew that the person he loved most could very well be his soulmate, and that that person may not exactly be his lover.

Ah, he was too young to be thinking about a lover, he supposed. At least, that’s what Kyo would say. He kicked at another rock and watched it skitter down the sidewalk. It leapt over the curb at the end and danced into the road only to vanish beneath the cars. He sighed and looked back at Kisa.

“Is that weird?” he finally asked.

Kisa hummed and tilted her head to the left as she looked up at the sky. She thought for a moment, and then she lowered her head to be level with Hiro’s. She smiled warmly and shook her head.

“No, I don’t think it’s weird,” she said. “Do you think it could be true?”

This question was tricky. He himself wasn’t so sure that he’d gotten his terminology right, but he had to look like he knew something now. There was no honor in making a fool of oneself in front of the girl you’d just called your soulmate. He scrunched his eyebrows up and made a show of thinking about it while he pondered over what answer would be the most appropriate one to give her.

“Well, they say that there’s always some way to tell,” he said. “Like…like how they have something in common that draws them to one another or something…”

He felt his chest tighten up. He’d just said ‘something’ twice. He wasn’t being very impressive at all with language like that. He sounded more like a bumbling idiot. Once again, his mind wandered to a mental image of Kyo. Hiro shook his head back and forth. No, no, he wasn’t a muscle-headed moron like that. He was worlds more sensible than Kyo, who couldn’t even stand to admit that he had a painfully obvious crush on Tohru.

Despite his clearly awkward wording, Kisa was nodding along as if she followed what he’d said. He must have done _something_ right. He cleared his throat and tried not to let the embarrassment show on his face, even though he couldn’t ignore the burning in his cheeks. Kisa giggled and reached down to grab his hand. His mental composure started to vanish at lightspeed. What was she doing? She was too cute.

“Say, Hiro,” she said. “Why don’t we ask big sister Tohru about it?”

A tinge of jealousy filled his chest. He didn’t want to consult Tohru about anything. He wanted to provide the answers to Kisa himself. But Kisa was so enamored with Tohru that he couldn’t think of a way around this unexpected turn in the conversation. He might as well cave—it wasn’t like Tohru would have an answer for that. She didn’t know everything. He could even reference her own oblivious feelings.

“Why do you want to ask her?” he asked.

He’d resist for as long as he could, though. If he could keep Kisa’s attention to himself, he’d prefer that. Kisa smiled and tugged on his arm, trying to direct him down a street that would lead to Shigure’s home.

“Big sister knows a lot of things,” she said. “And she’s always happy to share. So, I think she would be happy to tell us if we’re really soulmates or not.”

Hiro felt his cheeks starting to burn again. If he didn’t really have a clear grasp on what soulmates meant, then why was he getting so flustered about it? It was incredibly embarrassing. He shook his head to try and clear it. By then, she was already leading him down the path up to Shigure’s place. At this point, it wouldn’t be fair to protest. She’d won half the battle—they were already so close to being in the midst of the gathering of idiots.

He followed her up the stairs, trying his best to swallow the jealousy that kept creeping up his throat. He couldn’t explain why he was always so hurt by Kisa wanting to be around others or ask for help from others. He just knew that he wanted to be the one that she leaned on when she needed someone to be there for her. Once, he’d left her side because it was all-too awkward to be around her when he’d realized he had a crush on her. Now, he was trying to be here for her and be the best person she could go to.

So, why did she still run up these stairs to Tohru? Was there something about being soulmates that he was missing? He doubted that Tohru had an answer for something as profound as that. He sighed as they neared the top of the stairs. Out front, he saw the girl sweeping away at the entryway. She looked as clueless as ever.

“Big sister! Big sister!” Kisa called.

Tohru looked up from her sweeping and gave the two a perfect, gentle smile. He couldn’t understand why just a smile such as this could make Kisa so happy. Why didn’t his smile work the same way? He trailed along after Kisa as she dashed to go and get a hug from Tohru. The two laughed and embraced like they were the best of friends. Tohru turned to Hiro, who was just walking up to them, and waved.

“I didn’t know you two were coming over to visit today!” she said excitedly. “I forgot to put on some tea! Let me go and put on some tea!”

Hiro groaned.

“We’re just here to ask a question,” he said. “It’s not a full-blown visit.”

But Kisa was already three steps ahead of him.

“Can we have milk tea?” she asked.

He felt his irritation starting to bubble up as Tohru nodded and smiled, with her never-ending positivity radiating outwards as she spoke. The girls entered into the kitchen, leaving him in the front room as they went about making tea. Sighing, Hiro resigned himself to sulking on the table while he waited for the cup of tea that he didn’t ask for. He kept his eyes on the pair as they laughed and worked, letting his jealousy steep as long as the tea did.

When they finally came to join him, the pair seemed unaware of the turmoil occurring in his chest. He wanted to say that they’d been here long enough as it was but doing so might upset Kisa. And he didn’t want to upset Kisa—it defeated the purpose of trying to impress her. He mumbled a thanks for his tea and blew on it. The foamy surface swirled around with his breath. The motion was calming. If only he could be this calm.

“So, what was this question that you wanted to ask me?” Tohru said. “I’ll do my very best to answer it!”

She put up both fists in front of her like it was the most difficult task in the world. Hiro wanted to laugh at how silly she looked. Even Kisa let out a giggle, but her tone spoke loudly for her: she definitely wasn’t making fun of Tohru. She was simply amused by her behavior in a pleasant way. Kisa nodded in agreement and wrapped her hands around her teacup.

“We wanted to know,” she said, “about soulmates.”

Tohru hummed and tilted her head.

“Soulmates?” she said.

It was funny how similar Tohru sounded to Kisa in that moment. At the start of all of this, Kisa had said that word in the same exact way: very innocently, just repeating it after she’d heard it. There was an air of childishness to her tone that was les cute for her and more unbecoming, if Hiro thought about the fact that she was a high schooler.

“What about them?” Tohru said.

Kisa rubbed her fingers together.

“Hiro said we were soulmates,” she said. “And we both had to think about what that meant. So, we wanted to know…big sister, do you think we’re soulmates?”

As expected, Tohru immediately became flustered and waved her hands around.

“I-I-I don’t think I’m qualified to answer that, Kisa!” she exclaimed.

For a moment, Kisa looked a bit disappointed in Tohru’s response. But then, Tohru did what she always did. She calmed down, stared down at her hands, and assumed a somewhat motherly expression as she started to talk.

“Only the two people will know that, I think,” Tohru said. “It’s someone very close to you—more than a brother or a sister or a mother or father…”

She closed her eyes and shook her head.

“They can’t live without one another,” she said. “They’re very deeply tied together in their souls. They might be lovers…they might be friends…but either way, they’re inseparable. You can always count on your soulmate to understand you. There are things that don’t need to be spoken between you. It’s a very special relationship.”

Kisa hummed.

“A very special relationship…” she repeated.

Hiro hummed. Her words didn’t sound as inaccurate as he thought they would. On the contrary, the way she talked about this topic, it sounded as if she were very wise. He found himself turning her words over and over in his head. He looked over at Kisa and wondered to himself if all of these things applied to the two of them. He wanted to say yes.

He never wanted to be apart from her, he knew that.

He could depend on her if he needed to, he was sure of that, too.

But were there things between them that they didn’t need to say aloud?

Kisa looked over at him with her eyes sparkling in interest. He sat up, surprised by her expression, and then blinked at her a few times. She giggled and then nodded. He looked between the two girls. They were both giving him a knowing smile. He felt the heat returning to his cheeks. He jabbed a finger at Tohru.

“Oi! What’s so funny?!” he asked.

She shook her head.

“You just looked so lost in thought,” she said. “I thought that maybe you heard my words and agreed that you were soulmates.”

He opened his mouth to protest, but nothing came out save for a distressed gasp. He looked over at Kisa, who was emphatically nodding her head. He felt some of the jealousy start to subside. Was she agreeing, too? Kisa got up from her spot and walked around to his side of the table. She sat down beside him and reached over to grasp his hand in hers. He felt nervous for some reason. He wanted Tohru to leave, just in case he got even more embarrassed.

“Me too, Hiro,” she said, smiling at him. “I think that describes us perfectly, too.”

He felt like a wreck inside. What was this feeling? He didn’t want to look like an idiot in front of Kisa, but he couldn’t avoid stammering.

“Y-you do?” he said.

She nodded.

“We’re definitely soulmates,” she said.

Hiro couldn’t explain it, but hearing Kisa say that made him happier than anything else in the world. Even with Tohru sitting so closely. He managed a smile and nodded back at her.

“Yeah,” he said. “One-hundred percent.”


End file.
